So, it snowed this weekend in New York City. Well, not really … it was more of a bout of sleety nastiness that forced this blogger to abandon any plans of venturing out into the night for regularly scheduled holiday parties. While not much resulted in this weekend’s “snow event,” it was a harbinger of things to come that got me thinking about real snow accumulation and how to deal with it. And when I say deal I mean get rid of it.

As an apartment renter living in the city, I leave snow removal to city workers, building owners, and other kind souls who make traversing city streets a bit easier. However, many folks don’t have that luxury and are responsible for removing snow — usually with a gas-guzzling, polluting snow blower or an old fashioned shovel — from their own driveways, sidewalks, and property.

The folks at Sno Wovel fully understand the perils — air pollution and back pain, specifically — associated with using snow blowers and manual shovels and have invented a zero-emission wheeled snow shovel contraption that’s safe to use (apparently, snow shovel and blower use results in more than 100,000 emergency room visits annually in North America), effective, and easy to store.

The made-in-the-America Sno Wovel was named one of TIME’s “Best Inventions of 2006,” is Popular Mechanics-approved, and is recognized by Green America for its eco-friendliness so it’s not a gizmo released by some sketchy, fly-by-night operation that you might see hawked late at night on cable TV. Additionally, the University of Massachusetts commissioned an independent study to see how much more user-friendly the Sno Wovel is compared to regular snow shovels. The findings? Using a Sno Wovel reduces physical exertion by as much as 75 to 80 percent compared to using a snow shovel and makes the laborious snow removal process a whole lot quicker.

Although the Sno Wovel can be used to scoop, lift, and throw all types of white stuff, from slush to up to two feet of snow, it appears to perform best when dealing with serious accumulation. So with a sticker price of $120, I’m not sure that the Sno Wovel would be the best investment for small jobs. But if you live in an area that receives significant snowfall and you want to recoup the cost in gasoline and/or chiropractor bills and aspirin, it looks like the So Wovel is a sure thing.

Read Sno Wovel testimonials and check out the commercial below to see the Sno Wovel in action. And if you’re truly sold, find out where you can buy one.

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